Experiment 2: Difference in Reaction Time with and without

Distraction

John, Loui, Santiago, Emmanuel Joshua Schroth, John Paul Sevilla,

Oliver Kyle Sto. Domingo

Department of Mathematics and Physics

College of Science, University of Santo Tomas
España, Manila Philippines

Abstract moment of rest and the moment that

The reaction time of a person is
the time it takes for them to respond to a
stimulus. It reflects how quick a person’s
neurophysiological, cognitive, and
information processes. In this study, the
reaction time of a person was measured
by using a ruler and using a
mathematical formula to calculate the
reaction time by utilizing the gravity and
distance the ruler fell. Here, the
members of the group all had their
reaction times measured and also had it
measured while they are distracted. The
results that were obtained showed that
on average, a distraction will only add
0.03 seconds to the reaction time. This
may show that distractions may not have
a large effect on the reaction times but a
statistically significant result will not
always imply that the hypothesis is
correct.
Keywords: Reaction Time, Gravity,
Distance, Distraction
1. Introduction
Reaction time is defined as the
total time it takes for an object or person
to respond and act upon a certain
stimulus. A person at rest that is affected
by an external force will have a resulting
action to move. The time in between the
motion is present becomes the reaction
time. It reflects the speed of the flow of
neurophysiological, cognitive, and
information processes which are created
by the action of stimulus on the person’s
sensory system. The receipt of
information (visual or auditory), its
processing, decision making, and giving
the response or execution of the motor
act are the processes which follow one
another and make what we call the
reaction time (Balakrishnan, 2014). The
value of reaction time is important in
data-gathering as it is used to imply if a
person is still operating at an optimum
level in any condition. RT is one of the
valid and reliable tools for assessing
cognitive functions and is the measure of
function of sensorimotor association
(Kacker, 2019).
For this experiment, the ruler acts
as the measuring tool with the help of
gravity. Gravity based on visual
information affects a person’s behavioral
response to a moving object (Miwa,
2019). In order to produce an authentic
result, this activity requires two
participants, one will drop the ruler and
the other will catch it. An accurate and
precise measure of the reaction time is
done without prior anticipation from the
participant who will respond to the said
stimulus. According to Asano (2008),
the gravity direction relative to motion
direction affects the motion perception
itself. In this instance however, the ruler
is not pushed downwards or pulled
upwards by any other force besides
gravity, it is simply released.
Motor performance may be
impaired when the distraction and the
rest of the task are very different
(Hemond, 2010). Distraction affects the
motor functions of a person, particularly
to one who is doing another action.
Multitasking splits the attention and
capacity of a person to do one’s task
with relative speed. The human cortex is
able to process the physical features of a
range of stimuli and initiate actions that
are predicated on the stimulus relevance
(Bigliassi, 2017). However, the
execution of complex movements
usually requires high levels of
concentration and generally entails only
mild symptoms of fatigue, meaning that
attentional focus has to be entirely
allocated to task-related information
(Pashler, 2001). In the experiment, a
participant can only make use of one’s
index finger and thumb to catch the
ruler. It is quite a complex movement,
compared to catching it with the entire
hand. A test on whether distractions
have an effect on the reaction time is
measured under this condition. The
objective of this experiment is to
determine the reaction time with and
without distraction to the participant.
used in the formula. The Formula
utilized for computing the reaction time
was :
t= √(2 h/g)
Where:
t = time (seconds)
h = height (meters)
g = gravity (9.8 m/s２)
3. Methodology
Each member of the group was
subjected to measuring their respective
reaction time twice, one for without
distraction and one for with distraction.
One member of the group holds the ruler
at the 30cm mark while the member
being measured placed his/her thumb
and index finger at the 0cm mark. The
person holding the ruler dropped it
without informing his/her partner. The
ruler was caught as fast as possible,
recording the height the ruler has fallen.
This was repeated but this time, with a
distraction present, the person being
measured talks with other group
members or listens to music as he/she
catches the ruler again as fast as
possible. Similarly, the height of the
ruler that had fallen was recorded. Both
data were used to calculate the reaction
time and a paired t test was conducted
for further analysis.
4. Results and Discussion

2. Theory Table 1. The reaction time of each person,

with and without distraction
REACTION
This experiment was designed to TIME (S) REACTION
WITHOUT TIME (S) WITH DIFF.
compute and analyze the reaction time of DISTRACTION DISTRACTION
the participants subjected to distraction Person 1 0.136 0.186 0.050
Person 2 0.160 0.170 0.010
and without distraction. The data Person 3 0.182 0.208 0.026
obtained was in centimeters which are Person 4 0.194 0.213 0.019
Mean 0.168 0.194 0.026
then converted to meters before being Std. Dev 0.0221 0.0173 0.0282
 SE 0.0128 0.0099
Table 1 presents a summary of
the descriptive statistics computed for
both reaction time with and without
distraction. 0.026 and 0.0282 were the
differences of their means and standard
deviations, respectively.
0.3
Reaction Time (s)
0.2
0.1
0 on average 0.03 higher with distraction,
Without With
Presence of Distraction
Figure 1. Mean (± standard error) of the
reaction time of 4 students with and without
distraction.
People have a remarkably
impressive ability to perform multiple
tasks simultaneously. Being distracted
such as doing an additional motor skill,
however, gives complexity that causes a
performance impairment (Hemond,
Brown and Robertson, 2010). In this
activity, the reaction time of each
member of the group was measured with
and without the presence of a distraction.
Distractions can include texting,
listening to music, and actively engaging
in a conversation (Anderson, Bierman,
Franco and Zelko, 2012). In addition,
this activity includes a control setting
where no distractions were present.
Two series of measurements
were made of the reaction time of the
four members of the group: with and
without distraction. Table 1 presents the
results and its computed difference,
mean, standard deviation, and standard
error. Descriptive statistics describes the
basic features of the dataset. They
provide some sort of a summary about
0.0200 the sample and the measures and
together with a graphic analysis, it forms
a basis for the quantitative analysis of
data (Trochim, 2020).
A graphical representation using
a bar chart allows comparison between
the means (± standard errors) of the
students’ reaction time with and without
distractions. The mean reaction time of
the students with and without distraction
is shown in Figure 1. Reaction time was
a difference that a paired t test showed
was not significant (t1 = 0.9344, P =
0.157). A paired t test was then
conducted to determine if there is a
difference between the two sets of paired
observations. The critical value for t
statistic that was used was 12.706 at 5%
significance level, whereas 0.05 was
used for the p-value. Since |t| is less than
the critical value and the p-value is
greater than 0.05, there is no evidence to
reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the
mean difference between the two
measurements is not significantly
different from zero. In other words,
students’ reaction time is not
significantly different with and without
distraction. Error bars with standard
error were also used to signify removal
of within-sample variability. A
normality test, specifically Shapiro-
Wilk, was conducted before
incorporating a paired t test that revealed
that the datasets are normally distributed.
According to McLeod (2019), a
statistically significant result cannot
imply 100% certainty that a research
hypothesis is true. Because a p-value is
based on probabilities, an incorrect
conclusion about accepting or rejecting
the null hypothesis (H0) is always likely
to be made. Errors in statistical analyses
can be classified into two: (1) type 1
error and, (2) type II error. Type I error
(or false-positive) is the detection of an
apparently significant difference or
association, when in reality there is no
difference or association between the
populations (Ennos and Johnson, 2019).
On the other hand, type II error (or false-
negative) is the failure to detect a
significant difference or association,
when in reality there is a difference or
association between the populations
(Mourougan and Sethuraman, 2017). In
this activity, a type II error might have
occurred because of the small sample
size. This can be reduced, however, by
increasing the cut-off point which was
5% (Ennos and Johnson, 2019).
Significant differences between
reaction time with and without
distractions were proven in several
studies. This includes Owens and
Lehman’s study on the effect of age and
distraction on reaction time in a driving
simulator. The results of their study
suggest that there is a strong link
between age, visual task load, stimulus
location, and increased reaction time to
unexpected stimuli (Owens and Lehman,
2001). Therefore, it is very important to
eliminate distractions inside a vehicle
since adjusting radio volume, using a
cellular phone and interacting with
passengers can distract a driver (The
DriveSafety Team, 2018).
5. Conclusion
Results of the activity showed
that there is no significant difference
between the reaction time of the students
with and without distraction. Descriptive
statistics in the form of mean, standard
deviation, and standard error were also
tabulated that gave off values such as
0.168 and 0.19425 for mean, 0.0221 and
0.1730 for standard deviation, and
0.0128 and 0.0099 for standard error, for
the reaction time without and with
distraction, respectively. A paired t test
was then conducted. The critical value
for t statistic is 12.706 which was
exponentially higher than the computed t
statistic which 0.9344. Moreover, the
computed p-value (P = 0.157) was
greater than 0.05. Values of both t
statistic and p-value suggest that the
difference in the reaction time when
there is a presence or an absence of a
distraction is not significant. However,
errors might have affected the results
especially because the activity utilized a
small sample size. A type II error might
have occurred and the statistical tool
might have failed to detect a significant
difference, when in reality there is a
difference between the populations.
Several studies, however, indicated a
significant difference between reaction
time when being distracted and not
during driving. Thus, drivers must be
extra careful and eliminate such
distractions to prevent accidents.
6. Applications
With the use of formulas of
acceleration and velocity, one can
determine the height of a building with
only a stopwatch. For example we see a
rock fall from a building. Just by timing
how long it took for the rock to reach the
ground. We use this formula:
h=Vot +0.5at2
Where
h=height (m)
Vo= Initial Velocity (m/s)
a=acceleration (m/s2)
t=time (seconds)

For example it took a rock 10
seconds to reach the ground when
dropped from the top of the building.
From what can be observed, the initial
velocity will be 0 since the rock will be
at rest when it was dropped. The
acceleration would be the gravity, which
is 9.8m/s2. Substituting these values will
get us a value of 490 meters, this would
be the height of the building and shows
that the height of things can be
determined by using a stopwatch.
Reaction times is how quick
someone can react to something. It can
get significantly slower when the person
is distracted. This is why using
cellphones while driving is illegal since
the driver’s reaction time will drop and
will likely react late to what is in front of
the car and cause accidents.
Displacement vs Time graphs
and velocity vs time graphs can give us
information about what is happening.
For example, a student walking from his
dorm on the way to UST and back.
Figure 2. Displacement vs Time from
Dorm to UST
As observed in Figure 2, it is
pretty clear where the student was
throughout the time when he was
travelling to and from UST. The dorm
was the starting position, and when the
student reached UST, he had a change in
position, which is the displacement.
After going back to the dorm, He is back
to the starting position, so there is no
more displacement.
Figure 3. Velocity vs Time from Dorm
to UST.
In figure 3, it can be observed
that there are changes in velocity
throughout the journey. The student
starts at rest, then travels. He will
increase velocity since he will cross the
street and will then lower immediately
since he got a little tired from the run.
The velocity will then gradually
decrease due to the student getting tired
and also nearly approaching his
destination. On the way back, it mirrors
the same pattern as on the way to the
university since it is the same path, the
difference is that it is now negative
velocity since he is going the other
direction.
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